BASKETBALL

BASKETBALL; Seikaly Putting In Extra Time

By STEVE POPPER

Published: March 25, 1998

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., March 24—
The rest of his teammates had already left the court, heading for the locker room to partake of a birthday cake for David Vaughn and rush to nearby Teterboro Airport. But Rony Seikaly remained behind, working about a half-hour on the court and then retreating to the corner of the Nets' practice facility where he began a weight-lifting regimen with Rich Dalatri, the Nets' strength and conditioning coach.

Finally, with the rest of the players gone, the bags already packed and the team scheduled to fly to Philadelphia in less than 10 minutes, the Nets' equipment manager emerged from the locker room and begged Seikaly to call it a day. Seikaly and Dalatri looked upset to have their workout halted, but Seikaly finished one more set of exercises and headed for the exit.

The extra work is a necessity for Seikaly, both for his recovery from over a month on the sidelines, and for the Nets' fading playoff hopes. While they have dropped 10 of their last 12 games and have fallen half a game out of the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, the work of the recently acquired center has provided a glimmer that the team believes can lift the Nets back into the race.

Seikaly, who was acquired in a trade on Feb. 19 from the Orlando Magic, did not see action with the Nets until March 16. In each game, he has slowly inched his way into the lineup, beginning with nine minutes of garbage time in the first game, and progressing to 36 minutes in Sunday's overtime loss to the Washington Wizards. In the 36 minutes, Seikaly showed flashes of what he can do to help the Nets, scoring 8 points and getting 10 rebounds and 3 assists. But he also showed rust on his game, hitting on only 2 of 10 shots.

On a team sliding through the standings, Seikaly is the one addition that can make a difference. But there are only 13 games left, beginning on Wednesday night in Philadelphia, for him to find his form and get it done. ''It's very frustrating,'' Seikaly said. ''I know that I can do a lot better than I am now. But at the same time, I don't want to press because then things just multiply. I know that I've had just three practices with this team, so to gel the way we have in three practices is already an accomplishment.

''So I think that if we had some time, it would have been so much easier. But every practice we're getting better. You don't want to try different things in a game, not now. We want to win so badly, that we we're scared to try new things now.''

Jayson Williams, who has lost some time in the lineup to Seikaly as well as shifting over from center to power forward, is still Seikaly's biggest supporter.

''We're right where we want to be at,'' Sam Cassell said. ''Last year at this time, we were thinking about what we were going to do for our vacation, honestly. But this year, we're thinking about what we have to do to get in the playoffs.''